PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

It's been weeks I haven't visit my blog again. Lately I've been busy politicize my career. Working my ass to get out from this black hole I've been riding in, but the question which has been disturbing me lately is, Am I truly going out from the black hole or in fact getting into another black hole???!!!

I have told you the story why I don't like the place I work in rite now right, and I did mention a little bit about performance appraisal in my office. Honestly I am not satisfied with what I wrote, since it is not clearly describe it and I am sure you people didn't get the whole picture I am trying to send you. So I am making this one as a single topic to discuss, so I can getting out all of the complaints in my heart, which is full of injustice.

From Wikipedia perspective, 'Performance Appraisal' is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor. The aim of 'Performance Appraisal' is : to give employees feedback on their performance, identify employee training needs, document criteria to allocate organizational rewards, form a basis for personnel decisions (salary increases, bonuses, etc), provide the opportunity for organizational diagnosis and development, facilitate communication between employee and administration, to improve performance through counseling, coaching and development.

From my simple perspective, 'Performance Appraisal' is a method and process to evaluate the whole performance of an employee during one period by the corresponding supervisor or manager based on employee's duties and responsibilities with the main aim of getting feedback about employee's performance and basis for personnel decisions.

Now what I am witnessing and experiencing here, is unlike my perspective. It is far from what i have thought about 'Performance Appraisal'.

Let me give you the clear picture, we are starting our 'Performance Appraisal' by filling in an Appraisal form from our HR Division, this paper consists a lot of points of evaluation which we have to fill in by ourselves. And then, this paper would be forwarded to our supervisor to be approved and going directly to manager and head of our division. If it is getting its approval then we could get according to what we filled in the first place. but mostly, we never get what we actually deserved.

The paper-filling session is some kind like an effort to make it looks official. But the actual "Performance Appraisal" is when the management decides what is the achievement of every unit in the company, whether they achieved the target or not and the next process is, every head will leave it to the supervisor or the manager how to spread this achievement every unit got to every staff in their unit. The achievement will be measured in terms of 'BS = Excellent', 'B = Good', 'CB = Fair' and 'KB = Poor'. And, each achievement will have a range of points, for example; BS=8.5-10, B=7-8.4, CB=5.5-6.9, KB=<5.5 Are you with me?

Okay here we go, let say one unit will get a 'B' at a point of 7,5. Now this 7,5 has to be the average of 10 people inside that unit. This means, each people will get their 'cake' of 7,5 inside that unit. and mathematically, if somebody is selfish enough to get an 8,5, i don't know, maybe he/she thinks that he/she deserved to get promoted faster than anybody else inside that unit don't care to its team, as long his/her ass is get tighter and the others is getting knocked down; so there must be somebody get 6,5. And my guess is the only person who has this authority is Mr. Supervisor or Mr. Manager. The worse thing is, each one inside that unit would never know somebody else's achievement, to hide what Mr. Supervisor or Mr. Manager did to his/her subordinates. When somebody asking questions about the achievement, Mr. Supervisor or Mr. Manager will not be satisfied, and when they are not satisfied with you, be prepare for the next 'Performance Appraisal' to get even worse with what you get this year. What a fuc**** system! Owww, and one thing very funny, Mr. Supervisor or Mr. Manager will never answer your question when you are questioning why did you get your achievement, they will give you straight answer, it comes from the head, that it is not my decision. If you don't believe me, please look at your supervisor or your manager, if their career keeps running while you are stuck at your place, voila! It doesn't means that you have to dig it out and find the truth, just go somewhere else to find a better place to get a gold.

You must be asking, and how the hell Mr. Supervisor get his achievement? Dear readers, the achievement will be given in someway of hierarchy, the staff will be judged by his/her supervisor, the supervisor will be judged by his/her manager, manager will be judges by his/her head of division, etc. Its fair in a perspective that the judgment is made only in one level of hierarchy for the reason of how well the supervisor knows his/her staff or how well the manager knows the supervisor. But still, those judgments has to be based on the achievements of a unit.And when a supervisor is getting his achievement, usually Mr. Manager will ask all of the staffs feedback about this supervisor, how well this supervisor supervised his/her unit. But still, the decision is in Mr. Manager's hand, for the supervisor achievement. Now can you see the weakness? When one decision would be leaved to one person, so where is the control?! the staff's achievement would be judged by his/her supervisor, the supervisor achievement would be judged by his/her manager, and the manager would be judged by his/her head of division. All of those judgments will be based on the achievement a unit got from the wisdom of the head, and the division would get its achievement from the wisdom of management. Now once again where is the control?! Is the head of division wise enough to see how hard each of his staff worked? Is the management wise enough to see how hard its staffs worked? If the achievement is based on how target is achieved annually, in my opinion isn't that not suitable if it is used for the operation staff. It might be useful for the marketing staff, but not the operation. Instead of making a judgment for one group, for efficient and effective reason, don't the management should think another way in making a "Performance Appraisal" for the operation staff individually. The current 'Performance Appraisal" might be useful for the marketing staff only, but not for the operation staff! Because no matter how hard the operation staff would have worked, it might be unseen if it is measured in term of achievement. And by the way, how in the world the management could control the objectivity of one person of making "Performance Appraisal" decision for his/her staff unless there is a control system from management to make sure that this "Performance Appraisal" is served its needs especially in making personnel decision (promotion, further training, bonus, etc).

So, this so called "Performance Appraisal" is so subjective, not fair. I suggest management to change the system if they still want to have loyalty from their employees. Get a fairer 'Performance Appraisal' system. Especially this 'Performance Appraisal' is the only thing company has for personnel matter decision (bonuses, promotion, etc). Because believe it or not, based on my rough forecast, Indonesian people especially your staff is not that stupid and the economic is getting better by 6,5% development would create a lot more job opportunity in the future. So, in the next future, every company will fight for a better quality of Human Resources. Just want to remind you guys in those 'high' chair inside the company, your system is obsoleted and you are loosing a lot of high quality man you got!